Stories from the road: North Bay

Hey, it’s Gillian, from the AAE outreach team!

This past weekend Alyssa, Melanie G., and I travelled to North Bay for a career fair at the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre, and the Maamwi Kindaaswin pow wow.

We were fortunate enough to meet Ryan McMahon, a pretty funny guy, and heard all about his inspirational story as he was a key speaker at the career fair. Ryan was very down to earth and left us with great words going into the pow wow Saturday.

My favourite moment from our whole trip was talking to this boy. He and I had a whole conversation without him saying a word back to me. Later in the day that same boy came back to hang out and do some more engineering activities with us, but this time he came with his little sister.

It was amazing to listen to this brother and sister talk to each other. Their first language is Cree, and they spoke English and French as well! I now understand why the boy was not comfortable speaking to me in English, he was a little shy because it was his second language. His sister however was quite the chatter box. After building her own engineering hat, we found ourselves discussing very important issues, such as our favourite animal noises and colours. Her mom’s favourite colour was pizza?! I guess it can get confusing when you are only 4 and speak three different languages.

Nya:wen to everyone who shared their stories and knowledge with us this weekend.

The AAE team will be at the 53^rd Annual Aamjiwnaang pow wow this coming weekend in Sarnia, Ontario.